Empower Global Collaboration with NTT Cloud Communications Solutions
NTT Cloud Communications provides global managed collaboration and communication services for large enterprises, specializing in Microsoft Teams and Zoom integration.
Overview
NTT Cloud Communications (formerly Arkadin and now part of the NTT Ltd. ecosystem) is a global leader in managed collaboration and communications services. The company specializes in delivering end-to-end digital workplace solutions that enable seamless communication and collaboration for large, geographically dispersed enterprises. Their core offering centers on transforming traditional telephony into modern, cloud-based environments, primarily through deep integrations with Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
With a legacy rooted in conferencing and telecommunications, NTT Cloud Communications has evolved into a strategic partner for the Fortune 500. They provide a comprehensive suite of services including Cloud Voice (PSTN), unified communications as a service (UCaaS), cloud contact centers (CCaaS), and professional services for global deployments. Their market presence is characterized by a massive global footprint, leveraging NTT’s Tier-1 network infrastructure to provide superior voice quality and reliability that smaller specialized providers cannot match.
The company focuses on solving the complexity of global digital transformation. For an enterprise operating across 50 countries, managing 50 different local telecom providers is a logistical nightmare; NTT simplifies this by acting as a single global provider with local expertise in each region. Their history is marked by a steady transition from a conferencing service provider to a holistic digital workplace consultant, helping organizations navigate the shift to hybrid work models. Today, they serve as a critical bridge between software providers (like Microsoft and Zoom) and the physical infrastructure required to make those tools operational at scale.
Positioning
NTT Cloud Communications positions itself as the "Enterprise Bridge to the Digital Workplace." Their strategic positioning is built on the premise that while software vendors provide the tools for collaboration, NTT provides the global reliability, security, and professional services required to make those tools work in a complex corporate environment.
They target the "Upper Enterprise" segment—organizations with thousands of employees and multi-regional operations that require more than just an out-of-the-box software solution. Their messaging focuses on "Simplifying Complexity," emphasizing that they take the burden of managing global carrier relationships, hardware procurement, and user migration off the internal IT team.
In contrast to competitors like Verizon or Orange Business Services, NTT positions itself as being more specialized and agile in the collaboration space. Compared to "born-in-the-cloud" startups, NTT highlights its 150-year heritage of reliability and its ownership of the underlying network infrastructure. Their brand positioning is that of a "Safe Pair of Hands," appealing to CIOs who prioritize uptime, compliance, and global scalability over the lowest possible price point. Their messaging frequently highlights their status as a top-tier Microsoft and Zoom partner, reinforcing their role as an essential ecosystem player rather than a competitor to the major SaaS platforms.
Differentiation
The primary technical advantage of NTT Cloud Communications lies in its ability to wrap a complex, global carrier-grade network around standard SaaS applications like Microsoft Teams and Zoom. While many competitors offer simple SIP trunking, NTT provides a sophisticated "Cloud Voice" architecture that ensures high-quality PSTN connectivity across more than 80 countries, navigating complex local telecommunications regulations that often stymie global deployments.
Key product differentiators include:
- Global Managed Services for Microsoft Teams: They offer one of the most comprehensive Operator Connect and Direct Routing solutions in the market, integrated with advanced monitoring and reporting tools.
- Hybrid Work Infrastructure: Beyond software, they provide integrated hardware solutions for meeting rooms and executive spaces, ensuring a seamless experience between home and office.
- Advanced Analytics and Governance: Their proprietary management portals provide deep insights into call quality, user adoption, and cost management across multiple platforms, which are not available natively in the standard SaaS interfaces.
- Interoperability and Migration Tools: NTT excels at managing the transition from legacy PBX systems to the cloud, providing the "glue" that allows disparate systems to communicate during long-term migrations.
- Specialized Compliance Solutions: They offer tailored recording and archiving features for highly regulated industries like finance and healthcare, ensuring all cloud communications meet strict legal standards.
Ideal Customer Profile
The ideal customer for NTT Cloud Communications typically fits the following profile:
- Company Size: Large Mid-market to Global Fortune 500 (1,000 to 100,000+ employees).
- Industry: Financial Services, Manufacturing, Professional Services, Healthcare, and High-Tech.
- Geographic Footprint: Multi-national presence requiring consistent communication tools across different regulatory and carrier landscapes.
- Technical Maturity: Organizations currently utilizing or migrating to Microsoft 365 (Teams) or Cisco Webex who want to offload the complexity of PSTN connectivity.
- Budget Range: Mid-to-High; buyers prioritize reliability, global reach, and managed service quality over "lowest-cost" basic SIP trunking.
- Team Composition: IT teams that are moving toward a "lean" model and require a partner to act as an extension of their global networking and voice departments.
Best Fit
NTT Cloud Communications excels in the following scenarios:
- Global Enterprise Consolidation: Organizations operating across multiple continents that need to consolidate disparate legacy PBX systems into a single, managed Microsoft Teams or Cisco Webex environment while maintaining local regulatory compliance.
- Complex Regulatory Environments: Businesses in highly regulated sectors (Finance, Healthcare, Government) that require sophisticated call recording, data residency, and compliance capture integrated directly into their collaboration tools.
- Hybrid Work Transformation: Companies transitioning to a permanent hybrid model that require professional managed services to ensure high-quality audio/video experiences for both remote and in-office employees.
- High-Touch Managed Service Needs: IT departments that prefer a "white-glove" managed service provider to handle the day-to-day administration, monitoring, and troubleshooting of their global voice infrastructure rather than managing it in-house.
Offerings
NTT Cloud Communications offers several distinct service tiers and packages:
- Cloud Voice for Microsoft Teams: Includes Operator Connect for simplified management or Direct Routing for complex, customized global requirements.
- Webex Calling by NTT: A fully managed Cisco cloud telephony experience, ideal for organizations with significant existing Cisco infrastructure.
- Managed Collaboration Services: Ongoing operational support, monitoring, and administration for the entire UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) stack.
- Cloud Video Interop (CVI): A specialized service for connecting legacy boardroom hardware to modern cloud meeting platforms.
- Consulting & Professional Services: Bespoke engagements for network assessments, technology auditing, and digital workplace strategy.
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Everything you need to evaluate NTT Cloud Communications— from features and pricing to implementation and security.
Introduction
Welcome to the Enterprise Buying Guide for NTT Cloud Communications. As organizations move away from fragmented, on-premises telephony toward unified, cloud-based collaboration, choosing the right managed service provider is critical. NTT Cloud Communications (formerly Arkadin) stands as a premier global Tier-1 provider, specializing in transforming complex communication landscapes into streamlined Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex environments.
This guide is designed for IT leaders, procurement specialists, and digital workplace architects. You will learn about NTT's unique value proposition as a global carrier-integrated provider, the technical prerequisites for a successful rollout, and how their managed services model alleviates the burden on internal IT teams. Whether you are looking to solve global connectivity challenges or seeking a strategic partner for a hybrid work transition, this guide provides the objective criteria needed for a thorough evaluation.
Key Features
NTT Cloud Communications provides a comprehensive suite of features designed for global scale:
- Global SIP Trunking: A Tier-1 global network providing native PSTN connectivity in over 100 countries, reducing the need for multiple local carrier contracts.
- Managed Microsoft Teams Voice: Full-lifecycle management of Teams Phone, including Direct Routing, Operator Connect, and advanced calling features.
- Cloud Video Interop (CVI): Allows legacy H.323/SIP video conferencing room systems to join Microsoft Teams meetings seamlessly.
- Advanced Analytics & Reporting: A centralized dashboard providing real-time insights into call quality, user adoption, and system performance across the global estate.
- Compliance Capture: Integrated solutions for voice recording, SMS archiving, and meeting capture to satisfy GDPR, MiFID II, and HIPAA requirements.
- Managed Endpoint Services: End-to-end procurement, configuration, and support for certified headsets, handsets, and room kits (Logitech, Poly, Yealink).
Use Cases
- Financial Services Compliance: A global investment bank uses NTT to integrate compliant voice recording into Microsoft Teams across 30 countries, ensuring all trader communications are archived according to SEC and MiFID II regulations.
- Manufacturing Global Footprint: A large manufacturer replaces 50+ local PBX systems with a single NTT-managed Teams Voice solution, reducing telephony spend by 30% and simplifying IT management via a single global contract.
- Professional Services Mobility: A global consultancy leverages NTT’s mobile-first approach to provide consultants with a single business identity across laptops, mobile devices, and home offices, ensuring seamless client communication.
- Healthcare Telehealth: A regional healthcare provider utilizes NTT’s secure video integration to facilitate remote patient consultations, ensuring high-quality reliable video that integrates with their scheduling systems.
Pricing Models
NTT typically employs a multi-layered pricing structure tailored to enterprise scale:
- Per-User/Per-Month Subscription: A recurring fee based on the number of enabled users, often tiered by functionality (e.g., standard voice vs. contact center agent).
- Consumption-Based SIP Charges: Competitive per-minute rates for outbound PSTN calling, often available as "unlimited" bundles in specific geographies or "pay-per-use" for global coverage.
- Managed Service Fees: A fixed monthly management fee that covers 24/7 support, monitoring, and proactive maintenance of the environment.
- One-Time Implementation Fees: Professional services fees for initial design, tenant migration, and project management.
- Hardware Costs: Capital expenditure (CapEx) or Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) monthly leasing for physical handsets and room systems.
Technical Requirements
To implement NTT Cloud Communications, the following technical environment is typically required:
- Tenant Licensing: Valid licenses for Microsoft 365 (E3/E5 with Phone System add-on) or Cisco Webex subscriptions.
- Bandwidth: Minimum 100kbps per concurrent voice call and 1.5Mbps-4Mbps for HD video conferencing.
- Firewall Configuration: Open ports for signaling (SIP/TLS) and media (RTP/SRTP) as per NTT and platform (Microsoft/Cisco) specifications.
- Edge Connectivity: Support for Session Border Controllers (SBCs) if using a hybrid "Direct Routing" model, though NTT often hosts these in their cloud.
- DNS & Certificates: Ability to manage public DNS records and SSL certificates for secure federation and connectivity.
Business Requirements
To successfully adopt NTT Cloud Communications, organizations should meet the following prerequisites:
- Strategic Collaboration Roadmap: A clear decision to standardize on Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, or Zoom as the primary internal and external communication interface.
- Executive Stakeholder Alignment: Buy-in from CIO and CISO levels, as these migrations often impact global networking, security posture, and employee workflows.
- Network Readiness: An internal networking team capable of working with NTT to optimize WAN/SD-WAN settings for real-time traffic (Voice/Video) and implementing Quality of Service (QoS).
- Change Management Resources: A dedicated project lead or HR/Internal Comms partner to manage the cultural shift from traditional desk phones to softphones and unified collaboration apps.
- Process Documentation: Existing documentation of current telephony routing, hunt groups, and emergency calling requirements to facilitate the discovery phase.
Implementation Timeline
A typical global rollout follows a structured 12-24 week timeline:
- Discovery & Design (Weeks 1-4): Detailed audit of existing infrastructure, user personas, site-by-site requirements, and network assessment.
- Tenant Setup & Configuration (Weeks 5-8): Configuration of the cloud tenant (Teams/Webex), SIP trunking provisioning, and emergency services (E911) setup.
- Pilot Phase (Weeks 9-12): Deployment to a controlled group of 'champion' users to validate call quality, routing logic, and hardware compatibility.
- Global Migration/Porting (Weeks 13-20): Phased migration of users, porting of existing phone numbers from legacy carriers, and site decommissioning.
- Training & Go-Live (Weeks 21-24): Final user training sessions, help desk handoff, and full production launch.
- Note: Timelines are heavily influenced by the speed of local carrier number porting and the complexity of existing third-party integrations.
Support Options
Support is a core pillar of the NTT value proposition:
- 24/7/365 Global Follow-the-Sun Support: Multilingual support centers located across Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
- Tiered SLAs: Enterprise-grade Service Level Agreements (SLAs) covering uptime, incident response times, and resolution targets.
- Customer Success Management (CSM): Dedicated CSMs for enterprise accounts to drive adoption, conduct quarterly business reviews (QBRs), and manage the technology roadmap.
- Self-Service Portal: A comprehensive administrative portal for ticket management, service health monitoring, and real-time analytics.
- Professional Services: Access to specialized consultants for complex network redesigns, bespoke integrations, or global expansion projects.
Integration Requirements
NTT provides robust integration capabilities centered around the "Cloud-to-Cloud" model:
- Direct Routing & Operator Connect: Deep integration with Microsoft Teams, allowing for native call control within the Teams interface.
- API Access: NTT offers APIs for usage reporting, automated provisioning, and syncing with internal HRIS systems for user lifecycle management.
- CRM Integration: Pre-built connectors for major CRMs like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, enabling click-to-dial and automatic call logging.
- Compliance & Recording: Integration with third-party compliance recording suites (e.g., Verint, Nice) for regulated industries.
- Hybrid Interoperability: Support for connecting legacy analog devices (elevators, fax, paging systems) into the cloud environment via Analog Telephone Adapters (ATAs).
Security & Compliance
NTT maintains enterprise-grade security standards across its global infrastructure:
- Certifications: SOC2 Type II, ISO 27001, and HIPAA compliance readiness.
- Data Residency: Options to keep call signaling and data within specific geographic regions to comply with local privacy laws (e.g., GDPR in the EU).
- Encryption: End-to-end encryption for signaling (TLS) and media (SRTP) to ensure communications remain private.
- Fraud Detection: 24/7 automated monitoring for toll fraud and suspicious calling patterns with immediate alerting and mitigation.
- Identity Management: Integration with Azure AD (Entra ID) and Okta for secure Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
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